History - Objectives - importance & scope - Prior conferences

During the conference, an organizational committee composed of: Dr. Paul Smith , Professor, University of California at Davis; Dr. Tom Zitter, Plant Pathologist, I.F.A.S., Belle Glade, Florida; Dr. Lowell Black , Plant Pathologist, L.S.U., Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Joe Freeland , McIlhenny Company, Avery Island, Louisiana; Phil Villa, Breeder, Heublein Inc., Oxnard, California; and Dr. Ben Villalon , Plant Pathologist-Breeder, TAES-Weslaco, Texas, was selected to help determine direction of future pepper conferences.

The committee made the following recommendations:

• The pepper conference should be organized as the Pepper Improvement Committee (later changed to National Pepper Conference - NPC , making it easier for USDA and state scientists to attend).
• The conference should be held once every two (2) years.
• Conferences should be held in the major production areas such as California, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, New Jersey, Georgia, Texas, etc.
• Sub-committees, representing specific discipline areas, i.e. breeding , horticulture , processing , pathology , etc., should be organized and meet whenever necessary.
• NPC would adopt, as a parent organization, the Pickle Packers International, Inc. (PPI). PPI would serve as a central clearing-house for maintaining a central bank of names of the committee membership. PPI would provide and exchange of information between meetings, and work with the appointed chairman for coordination.
• The committee, with approval of all members, would select the next meeting site and appoint a local area coordinator as chairman.